Screening of Films Papa Machete/ H-2 Worker at PAMM

Thu Jun 14, 2018

In celebration of “Juneteenth,” PAMM collaborates with National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to host a screening of Papa Machete (2014, dir. Jonathan David Kane) and H-2 Worker (1990, dir. Stephanie Black). A conversation between documentary filmmaker Stephanie Black; writer, musician, and filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers; and guest curator for NMAAHC Michelle Materre will follow the screenings, touching upon questions of identity, colorism, labor, and geography’s impact upon people across the African Diaspora.

Papa Machete | 2014, Directed by Jonathan David Kane
Two hundred years ago, the slaves of Haiti defeated Napoleon’s armies in the historic revolution of 1791-1804. One of their weapons was the very tool they used to work the land: the machete. Papa Machete explores the esoteric martial art through the practice and life of a farmer named Alfred Avril. The short film documents his proud devotion to his heritage in the face of increased globalization, and his efforts to keep this mysterious art alive.

H-2 Worker | 1990, Directed by Stephanie Black
A controversial expose of the travesty of justice that takes place around the shores of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. There, for six months a year, over 10,000 Caribbean men are brought to hand-harvest sugarcane for American corporations under a temporary “H-2” guest worker visa.

Speakers:

Stephanie Black is a documentary filmmaker whose credits include the award-winning feature documentaries: LIFE AND DEBT (2001) on the impact international organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank, and current globalization policies have on the economies of developing nations such as Jamaica, W.I.; and H-2 WORKER (1990) about the ten thousand Caribbean men brought to Florida each year to harvest sugarcane for American corporations under a temporary “H-2” guest worker visa.

Jason Fitzroy Jeffers is a writer, musician, and filmmaker from Barbados who is based in Miami. Since 2001, Fitzroy Jeffers has written about everything from crime and politics to arts and entertainment for many of South Florida’s major publications including The Miami Herald and Ocean Drive. In 2013, he assembled a crew of filmmakers to travel to Haiti to document one of the few remaining practitioners of the esoteric revolutionary martial art of Haitian machete fencing.

Michelle Materre, guest curator for NMAAHC, is the founder, host, and producer of the critically-acclaimed Creatively Speaking Film Series. Creatively Speaking has been a premiere forum for presenting works by and about women and people of color for twenty-two years. Materre’s professional background spans more than thirty years’ experience as film producer, writer, arts administrator, distribution/marketing specialist, film programmer, and college professor.

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